David Rogers: All hail the bedroom rock star!

Friday

May 14, 2010 at 12:01 AMMay 14, 2010 at 2:16 PM

Boston-area guitarist Steve Mayone isn’t a loser. He may sing about being one on the title track of his CD “Bedroom Rockstar,” but actually Mr. Mayone and millions of other homegrown artists/bedroom rock stars are pretty much what makes today’s music industry so exciting.

David Rogers

Boston-area guitarist Steve Mayone isn’t a loser. He may sing about being one on the title track of his CD “Bedroom Rockstar,” but actually Mr. Mayone and millions of other homegrown artists/bedroom rock stars are pretty much what makes today’s music industry so exciting.

Using software like Sonar, Reaper or Pro Tools and half-decent microphones, aspiring musicians can create quality recordings in their own bedrooms or any room in their house, for that matter. With MySpace, Facebook and free blogs, they can post their songs online and then direct fans or booking agents to the site.

For too long, aspiring musicians had to slug it out in the clubs and hope (pray) that a record executive would show up. If you lived in Los Angeles, New York and a few other cities, that was possible. But what about if you lived in Duluth or Sioux Falls? The other alternative was to scrape together enough money to buy time at a recording studio and swing for the fences hoping that the thousands of dollars you spent recording, duping and distributing your song would get it play time on a radio station.

When brick and mortar music stores still reigned supreme, buying new music meant listening to the radio, mowing a few lawns and then walking miles to the nearest Strawberries or Sam Goody. But now the flexibility for musicians to record, distribute and promote their music all in one location has made it possible for music junkies like myself to discover tons of new artists.

As with everything, there are trade offs. For one, interacting with other musicians, fans, club owners and college DJs are all good things in terms of marketing yourself. And yes, playing live as much as possible is a crucial way to build up a fan base. Just ask Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Phish, or The Dave Matthews Band.

And second, no matter how good your microphones and software may be, bedroom recordings aren’t going to match the sound quality artists can get from recording at a proper studio. But since digital downloads crunch music waves into smaller files so they can be sent across cyberspace easier, a substantial percentage of that quality is lost anyway.

Yes, it’s lamentable that music doesn’t sound as good as it used to. But things have changed immensely since people first plopped on a pair of headphones and listened to every scream, shout or whistle on “The Dark Side of the Moon” or “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

On the whole, people just don’t listen to music the way they used to. They don’t sit in their oversized recliners and listen to an album from start to finish. They’re more inclined to sample songs on iTunes and buy the two or three songs that catch their attention. Also, people are just too busy to veg in one place for an hour or so. They’re doing other things at the same time, be it eating, working on a laptop or driving. (The same thing is happening with television, by the way, as more people stream TV shows and movies on to their computers and Smartphones).

And when comparing homegrown music of 2010 to the professionally recorded music released in the 1950s or 1960s, it’s not even close. “Bedroom Rockstar” sounds infinitely more professional than say The Beatles’ “Love Me Do” or Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone.”

But Steve Mayone’s real triumph isn’t that he was able to record music that sounds better than musical legends. The best part is that fans of the bedroom rock star discovered his music without, yes, leaving our bedrooms.

David Rogers is a senior editor with GateHouse Media in Beverly, Mass. Any comments? Send them to drogers@cnc.com.

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